There’s a great sort of satisfaction in being able to successfully recreate something you’ve been eating your whole life but never made before. And something as simple as Mast o Musir which is literally just yogurt and shallots should be a slam dunk, right? Wrong.
It all started out innocently – diced two medium sized shallots. Side note: shallots are like the perfect combo of garlic and onions. I wonder why we don’t see shallots more in western cuisine?!
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| Neither garlic nor onion. Dear shallot: to thine own self be true! |
Then mix it up with my trusty old 32-oz container of Fage 2% Greek Yogurt, salt to taste and let it sit for the flavors to infuse. I left it overnight.
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| Mast o Musir – Persian Yogurt and Shallot Dip |
It tasted good – not great or bad – just good. But it definitely lacked the distinctive taste of Mast o Musir. I did some research and people said use labne, mix with sour cream, try pickling your shallots, etc. Too much work for such a simple dish. The moral of the story is that some things are best left to the restaurants, and now I’ll appreciate good Mast o Musir even more when I come across it.
The whole experience makes me think one of those ‘nailed it’ memes going around the net which absolutely crack me up.
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| (source: craftfail.com) |
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| (source: everythingfunny.org) |
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| (source: craftfail.com) |
For more ‘Nailed It’s, and lots of LOLs, go here: http://craftfail.com/category/food-fails/
Making M-o-M sounds like fun!!!! Nice work!!!!
PJJ
It looks delicious!! Well done!!
if you bought shallots from the store, you made a mistake. the moosir they use in persian cooking is not the normal shallots you find at stores. the american store bought shallot is pretty much a mini onion. moosir is a different strain altogether, and is very, very pungent. if you had fresh stuff of this it would stink up the whole kitchen. they arent easy to find fresh. middle eastern shops will have dried moosir. buy those for a few dollars, soak some dried pieces in water for ~2+ hours. you’ll notice the whole place stink.
the 2 things are night and day different. 3 years too late probably, and i bet youve found out by now 🙂
Full fat yogurt, strained through cheescloth for two days, before adding shallots.